Pupil persuades school gun girl to surrender

A boy has told how he persuaded an armed teenage girl to drop the gun she had used to shoot a classmate in the second US school shooting of the week.

Brent Paucke, 14, says he ducked under a table in the Catholic school cafeteria when the girl, also 14, came in screaming and fired two shots.

He says he recognised her from his school bus and decided to try and calm her down.

He said: "She was saying 'I don't want to live. I should just commit suicide right here.' And she pointed the gun at her head. I got up and started talking to her. I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

He says the girl pointed the gun at him from about five feet away, and his principal told him to back away. But he says he kept talking because he feared more people would be hurt.

He said: "You could tell she was really mad and she looked like she was about to go off on everybody." He says the girl eventually placed the gun on the floor and he kicked it away.

Policeman David Ritter has described Brent as "very courageous". He added: "We were very proud that a student would take such a serious risk." A witness says the girl fired at the floor of the school cafeteria and the bullet ricocheted into the victim, a classmate she had feuded with in the past.

The shooting happened around noon during lunch in the cafeteria filled with about 120 pupils at Bishop Neumann Junior-Senior High in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

George Lepley, the girl's lawyer, said he understood his client had been teased by classmates, including the victim. He said she had not meant to shoot the other girl and was relieved to learn the bullet wound was not life-threatening.

The 15-year-old suspect in a California high school shooting spree has appeared in court charged with two counts of murder.

Charles Williams, accused of killing two and wounding 13 in a hail of small-calibre pistol fire at the 1,900 student Santana High School in suburban San Diego, remained silent throughout a brief hearing, which was televised nationwide.